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Authorities on Thursday were still investigating why an Iraq War veteran shot and killed three people and wounded 16 others at Texas’ Fort Hood before committing suicide — and have not ruled out terrorism.

“We’re going to keep an open mind. … Possible extremist involvement is still being looked at very, very carefully,” Army Secretary John McHugh told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

Authorities said gunman Ivan Lopez, 34, enlisted in the Army in 2008 and served four months in Iraq but never saw combat and was not wounded in action, but was still being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We do not know a motive,” said Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, Fort Hood’s senior officer. “We do know that this soldier had behavioral health and mental health issues, and was being treated for that.”

US Army Sgt. Tim Owens, left, with his cousin Glen Welton. Owens was one of three people killed by Ivan Lopez at Fort Hood, Texas, on April 2.AP Photo/Courtesy of the Owens family

Lopez was a native of Puerto Rico who was married with children and had other relatives living near the Fort Hood area, where 13 people were murdered in 2009 in an attack by a soldier who had embraced radical Islam.

Investigators were exploring several possible angles beyond terrorism, including whether a fight or argument on the base triggered the attack.

“We have to find all those witnesses, the witnesses to every one of those shootings, and find out what his actions were, and what was said to the victims,” a federal law enforcement official said.

Investigators searched the soldier’s home Thursday and questioned his wife, said Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug.

Lopez’s mother, Carmen Lopez, died in Puerto Rico last year, and he was enraged at the Army for at first refusing to let him attend her services, a childhood pal told El Nuevo Dia, a Puerto Rican newspaper.

Military brass later relented and he was given a 24-hour pass to attend her funeral.

Lopez seemed fine in a conversation with the friend two days before the killings, the paper said — but did mention that he’d had a beef with someone at the sprawling base.

“It seems he had an argument with someone back at base. Seems that he had been robbed or something,” the pal told the paper.

Milley said there is a “strong possibility” that Lopez had a “verbal altercation” with one or more soldiers immediately before the shooting.

Milley also said Thursday that there’s “no indication at this point” that Lopez was targeting specific people in the Wednesday afternoon shooting.

Also Wednesday, a Facebook page that appeared to be Lopez’s emerged — but under the name Ivan “Slipknot,” the name of a hardcore metal band.

Several neighbors and a Fort Hood official confirmed the images show Lopez, ABC reported.

He was also on medication for his problems, including Ambien for a sleep disorder.

The suspect was fully examined last month by a psychiatrist, McHugh said.

There was no record that there was any sign he was likely to commit violence either against himself or others, “so the plan [going] forward was just to continue to monitor and treat him as deemed appropriate,” he said.

Lopez “had a clean record” behaviorally, McHugh added. There were “no major misbehaviors that we’re yet aware of,” he said.

Lopez had one weapon, a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun, that was not registered with base authorities, as rules require.

It was unknown how much ammo he was carrying.

Investigators believe the shooter walked into a building in a medical area, opened fire, entered another building and shot again, Milley said.

After his rampage, Lopez killed himself in a parking lot at the base transportation brigade’s administration building, after he was confronted by a military policewoman.

“It was clearly heroic, what she did at that moment in time,” Milley said. “She did her job, and she did exactly what we would expect of United States Army military police.”

At least three military personnel remain in critical condition after the rampage, the Dallas Morning News reported.

President Obama delivers a statement from Chicago, saying he was “heartbroken” that another shooting had occurred at the Fort Hood Army base.

A spokesman for Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple told the paper Thursday that three patients are critical and six are serious.

The rep said eight males and one female were admitted following Wednesday afternoon’s gunfire.

Fort Hood officials did not immediately provide details on the other seven people who were shot or otherwise hurt during the bloodbath.